1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a touch screen and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the continuous development in the electronic technology and the information technology fields, the relative importance of electronic devices is constantly increasing in everyday life, including work environment. In particular, as electronic technology continuously develops, touch screens are used in portable devices that are recently reduced in size and thickness. Touch screens, devices generally installed in display devices to detect positions on the screen touched by a user and control electronic devices, using information on the detected contact position as input information, in addition to controlling the screen of the display, have various advantages of being simply operated with minimal malfunction in a small space and very compatible with IT devices.
Meanwhile, the touch screen is classifiable as a resistive type, a capacitive type, an electromagnetic type, a surface acoustic wave (SAW) type, an infrared type, and so on. Among others, resistive and capacitive types are prevalently used in consideration of the functional and economical aspects.
FIGS. 1 and 2 are process plan views for explaining a method of manufacturing a touch screen according to the prior art. Hereinafter, a method of manufacturing a touch screen according to the prior art will be described with reference to these figures.
First, as shown in FIG. 1, a patterned transparent electrode 12 is formed on a transparent substrate 11. At this time, the transparent electrode 12 may be made of indium tin oxide (ITO) or a conductive polymer.
Next, as shown in FIG. 2, a wiring electrode 13 is formed at an edge of the transparent substrate 11 so as to be connected to the transparent electrode 12.
The touch screen has been manufactured in the prior art according to the manufacturing method as described above.
However, the method of manufacturing the touch screen according to the prior art forms the wiring electrode 13 after the transparent electrode 12 is formed, thereby causing a problem in that the transparent electrode 12 is damaged. More specifically, high heat is generated when the wiring electrode 13 is formed and thus, when the transparent electrode 12 is first formed on the transparent substrate 11, the heat generated at the time of forming the wiring electrode 13 is transferred to the transparent electrode 12 as it is, causing a problem in that the transparent electrode 12 is damaged, for example, increase in sheet resistance of the transparent electrode 12. In particular, when the transparent electrode 12 is made of a conductive polymer, the conductive polymer is more sensitive to heat, thereby causing a more serious problem.